What is a phobia?

A phobia is an "irrational and excessive fear of an object or situation." Phobias are often caused by the fear of something bad happening to you.

Phobias and Everyday Life

Phobias contain many different factors, including the genetic factor, the cultural factor, and the experience factor. The cultural factor includes things like karma, whereas you don't do bad to others for the fear of something bad happening to you. The genetic factor is still undecided whether it exists or not. This is due to the fact that some research supports the hypothesis of phobias being genetic, while others disprove the hypothesis. The experience factor is what we often think of when the word phobia is mentioned. Phobias developed from experience have many causes. For example, lets say when you were little, you almost drowned when swimming in your friend's pool at a party. This would leave a psychological effect on you. It is possible, however, to cure a phobia with the help of a psychologist.

Interesting Phobias

Angrophobia - The fear of becoming angry
Anuptaphobia - Fear of being single
Atychiphobia - Fear of failure
Cyclophobia - Fear of bicylces
Coulrophobia - Fear of clowns
Gnosiophobia - Fear of knowledge
Ouranophobia - Fear of heaven





http://psychology.about.com/od/phobias/f/dis_phobiadef.htm
http://www.tech-faq.com/what-causes-phobias.html
http://www.phobia-fear-release.com/list-of-all-phobias.html